The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has waded into the politicized debate over NPR and PBS, ordering up an investigation that he said could be relevant in lawmakers’ decision about whether to continue funding the public news organizations.
Brendan Carr, the chairman, said in a letter to NPR and PBS on Wednesday that the inquiry would focus on whether the news organizations’ member stations violated government rules by recognizing financial sponsors on the air.
Mr. Carr said that NPR and PBS stations operate as noncommercial broadcast organizations, but that they may be airing “announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”
“To the extent that these taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for-profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements,” Mr. Carr wrote, “then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars.”
The letter is the latest action from President Trump’s allies to target NPR and PBS stations and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a taxpayer-funded organization that backs them. Executives at NPR and PBS stations have been bracing for a potential battle over government funding, gaming out financial worst-case scenarios.
Mr. Carr, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, said he did not see a reason for lawmakers to continue funding the organizations. He said that he planned to notify members of Congress about his investigation.
Ms. Maher of NPR said in a statement that the organization’s practice of using sponsorships, also known as underwriting, “complies with federal regulations.”
“We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR’s adherence to these rules,” Ms. Maher said. “We have worked for decades with the F.C.C. in support of noncommercial educational broadcasters who provide essential information, educational programming, and emergency alerts to local communities across the United States.”
PBS said in a statement that it was proud of “noncommercial educational programming,” and worked “diligently to comply with the F.C.C.’s underwriting regulations.”
The F.C.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NPR and PBS have long aired sponsorships under rules set forth by the government, said Eric Nuzum, a former NPR executive and co-founder of the audio consulting and production company Magnificent Noise. Sponsorships and underwriting differ sharply from advertising on commercial TV and radio in several respects, he said.
“The difference is, in a commercial, the sponsor can say anything they want — it’s their time,” Mr. Nuzum said. “In an underwriting situation, the station provides an acknowledgment of who’s providing the funding, along with basic information about the underwriter.”
Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said he believed Mr. Carr seemed to be setting up a legal pretext for interfering with public media.
“The end of Mr. Carr’s letter tellingly goes far beyond underwriting and talks about his thoughts on whether public media should be funded at all and notes that this underwriting issue might be relevant to a broader legislative debate,” Mr. Stern said. “That was troubling to read.”
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